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Month: November 2016

It’s almost audit season for calendar-year entities. A little preparation can go a long way toward facilitating the external audit process, minimizing audit adjustments and surprises, lowering your audit fees in the future and getting more value out of the audit process. Here are some ways to plan ahead.

The mindset

Before fieldwork begins, meet with your office team to explain the purpose and benefits of financial statement audits. Novice staff members may confuse financial audits with IRS audits, which can sometimes become contentious and stressful. Also designate a liaison in the accounting department who will answer inquiries and prepare document requests for auditors.

Reconciliation
Enter all transactions into the accounting system before the auditors arrive, and prepare a schedule that reconciles each account balance. Be ready to discuss any estimates that underlie account balances, such as allowances for uncollectible accounts, warranty reserves or percentage of completion.

Check the schedules to reveal discrepancies from what’s expected based on the company’s budget or prior year’s balance. Also review last year’s adjusting journal entries to see if they’ll be needed again this year. An internal review is one of the most effective ways to minimize errors and adjusting journal entries during a financial statement audit.

Work papers
Auditors are grateful when clients prepare work papers to reconcile account balances and transactions in advance. Auditors also will ask for original source documents to verify what’s reported on the financial statements, such as bank statements, sales contracts, leases and loan agreements.

Compile these documents before your audit team arrives. They may also inquire about changes to contractual agreements, regulatory or legal developments, additions to the chart of accounts and major complex transactions that occurred in 2016.
Internal controls

Evaluate internal controls before your auditor arrives. Correct any “deficiencies” or “weaknesses” in internal control policies, such as a lack of segregation of duties, managerial review or physical safeguards. Then the auditor will have fewer recommendations to report when he or she delivers the financial statements.

Value-added
Financial statement audits should be seen as a learning opportunity. Preparing for your auditor’s arrival not only facilitates the process and promotes timeliness, but also engenders a sense of teamwork between your office staff and external accountants.

Federal due dates for the 2016 tax returns are changing for the 2017 filing season. Don’t worry, your individual income tax return is still due April 15th and the extended due date is still on October 15th. Changes were made to business returns and other tax forms.

The new due dates apply to tax years beginning after December 31, 2015. This also applies to a business that that may have a short year return during 2016. For business that have a fiscal year end other than a calendar year end the due dates may differ slightly.

New federal due dates for a calendar year taxpayer are below:

Form Type Due Date Extended Due Date

1065 Partnership March 15 September 15

1120S S corporation March 15 September 15

1040 Individual April 15 October 15

1041 Trust & Estate April 15 September 30

1120 C corporation April 15 September 15

FinCEN Form 114 Foreign Accounts April 15 October 15

990 & 990T Tax Exempt May 15 November 15

5500 Employee Benefit Plans July 31 October 15

States that have income filing requirements will be working to enact legislation to change their due dates to coincide with the federal deadlines for 2017.

Why the change?

Over the years more and more businesses were formed as a flow through entity-such as a partnership or S corporation-rather than a C corporation due to the tax implications. As tax law and the complexities of a partnership structure increased, additional time was needed in order for information to be gathered, prepared, and properly reviewed before filing a business tax return. Individual taxpayers were finding it difficult to file on time due to receiving a late Schedule K-1. A Schedule K-1 is the form one receives as being a partner or shareholder of a business structured as a flow through entity. The AICPA, tax professionals and business owners voiced their concerns and opinions and advocated for a change in the federal due dates. Congress passed the new legislation in 2015 to take effect for the 2017 filing season.

Inventory includes raw materials, work-in-progress and finished goods. Your physical inventory count also may include parts and supplies inventory. Under U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), inventory is recorded at the lower of cost or market value.

Estimating the value of inventory may involve subjective judgment calls, especially if your company converts raw materials into finished goods available for sale. For example, the value of work-in-progress inventory includes overhead allocations and, in some cases, may require percentage-of-completion assessments.

A moving target

The inventory count gives a snapshot of how much inventory is on hand at year end. The value of inventory is always in flux, as work is performed and items are delivered or shipped. To capture a static value, it’s essential that business operations “freeze” while the count takes place.

Usually, it makes sense to count inventory during off-hours to minimize the disruption to business operations. Larger organizations with multiple locations may be unable to count everything at once. So, larger companies often break down their counts by physical location.

Proactive planning

Planning is the key to minimizing disruptions. Before counting starts, management can:.

If your company issues audited financial statements, your audit team will be present during the physical inventory count. They aren’t there to help count inventory. Instead, they’ll observe the procedures, review written inventory processes and cutoffs, evaluate internal controls over inventory, and perform independent counts to compare to your inventory listing and counts made by your employees.

Beyond the count

When the inventory count is complete, it’s critical to investigate discrepancies between your computerized accounting records and physical inventory counts. We can use this information to help you evaluate how to stock items more efficiently and safeguard against future write-offs due to fraud, damage or obsolescence.